Getting into College: Order from most important to least important

[Anonymous]

I've always wondered how these development cases work. A parent contacts the school when their child is how old?

Athlete recruits are interesting. I've had two close friends have their children recruited by Ivies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:18:49 Yes on the takeaway but:

Student athletes make what percentage of an entering class?

As for Goldin's $1 million figure, I cannot believe that the high legacy numbers at the Ivies are all applicants whose families donated $1 million. Some perhaps but I wonder what percentage of that percentage.

18:49 here - just a couple of percent, if I recall correctly. Legacies are far more numerous, as are development cases. In this world where income inequality increases every year (in part due to this system of keeping the plushest diplomas and then jobs among the already well-connected), I am not surprised that a lot of people can afford to donate a million for the Ivies - note that some of it is money raised from others, it does not have to be personal money. At Harvard, members of the executive council of the donations board (has a fancy name I can't remember) are chosen when they have raised or donated more than 5 million. Some have given 25M.

I read Price of Admission too, and while I absolutely agree with 95% of what you said, my sense was that you could count the number of development cases on one hand. Also, some colleges are apparently worse than others wrt brown-nosing development cases and celebrities' kids. Certain colleges (hello, Harvard!) hold special events featuring celebrity speakers to woo their rich alums, and Harvard also created the "Z list" for alum and celebrity kids who aren't quite up to par and maybe need another year to "mature" before starting as Harvard freshmen. Brown and Duke were singled out for brown nosing development cases and celebrities' kids, but then again it was only a few names (kid of a famous author, kid of a Beatle). If your name is George Harrison, then the Brown development officer might show up at your estate in Britain. But it wasn't clear to me you'd get the kid gove treatment if you were a plain old Joe Schmoe with a very successful car dealership, or at colleges besides Harvard, Brown and Duke. I'm sure some of this goes on everywhere, but it seemed like some colleges were particularly egregious in the brown-nosing department.

Like yours, my impression from Price of Admission was that legacy and athletic recruits played a much bigger role in admissions preferences, and that legacy and athletic recruitment are essentially affirmative action for rich white kids who can afford extensive coaching and even to participate in some of the really expensive sports like eqestrian sports, crew, sailing and squash, where membership in a sports/country club is useful. Therefore, affirmative action basically offsets this. (I'm white, FWIW.) I also noted the snarky comment from one Ivy admissions officer, that if you used their education to go into some profession like teaching where you were unable to make respectable annual donations to the alumnae fund, then your bad judgment was a poor reflection on you and might actually hurt your kid's admissions chances. Ouch!

[Anonymous]

What I think helped my Daughter get into a great University was she had good work experience. She was a solid "B" student with 4 AP classes. Had a paying job since 15 that she got all on her own. Worked at a camp then did retail. Bosses loved her and one wrote her a recommendation. Her Essays were also very good. the school knew they had a hard working kid with a good head on her shoulders.

[Anonymous]

DC got into one of the most selective colleges by hitting all the requirements (GPA, SATs) and then earning a great recommendation from someone who is nationally known in DC's prospective major.

[Anonymous]

21:18 who presumably knows DC?

[Anonymous]

13:06, so glad to hear about your DD - sounds similar to ours in some ways. I'm wondering, is she currently in college? Did she attend public HS or private?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:21:18 who presumably knows DC?

Yes, absolutely, which is why I put "earned a recommendation." DC worked with this person for 2 years as an extra curricular activity.

[Anonymous]

Thanks the earning could have been the grades/scores, relationship not clear.

[Anonymous]

Very top schools will assume top SATs, top GPA, top classes so the "extra's" are very important.

Publics will have a GPA & SAT intercept range. Very formula driven. Extra curriculars will not matter - unless the student is a recruit.

Privates will evaluate holistically. That is as long as their rankings/financials are not jeopardized. Being full pay may help.

[Anonymous]

Previous post is right on. Test are cruciall and that something unique about you.

[Anonymous]

It also depends on the number of qualified applicants from a particular high school.

For example, applicants from TJ are at a disadvantage because there are so many who have almost perfect academic credentials so the most select colleges can't very well offer admission to all the applicants who may be qualified on paper. It therefore will require that extra something to be eligible for acceptance in those colleges.

To put it another way, some students with the very same profile from TJ would likely stand a better chance of getting into some of the most competitive colleges if they were from a different high school that had fewer applicants with substantially similar profiles.

From a practical standpoint it does not matter because most students from TJ do get offers from some of the best colleges even if not from the Ivies. There is a large contingent that goes to UVA in most years.